


All Our Love

by Mad_Muse_Musings



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, spoilers for T.R.A.C.K.S.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:00:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1206970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Muse_Musings/pseuds/Mad_Muse_Musings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of TRACKS, Jemma and Melinda have to deal with their emotional upheaval regarding Skye, which leads to some revelations for them and a lot of shared time in hospital chairs.</p>
<p>Can be read a squeal to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1172118">Who Will Be Your Rock?</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	All Our Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beerbad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beerbad/gifts).



When they landed, the plane was overwhelmed by doctors and the team just had to stand back and watch as they took control of Skye’s health. Jemma had tried to follow the group of doctors, insisting that she could be helpful, but they just pushed her away.

Ultimately she realized she wouldn’t have been useful. Right around the time she saw Dr. Banner and a grouping of her old professors coming down the hall, she realized it was much worse than she thought. Dr. Banner pulled Coulson aside hours later, and the whole team heard the muted yelling, but eventually it faded and when Coulson came back out he took a seat by May squeezing her hand tightly.

“Bruce says we should go get some rest. He’s on the first shift of the surgery teams and they are expecting at least another twelve hours to repair all the damage from the bullets.” He trails off, tears sliding down his face.

“Do we all want SHIELD quarters or sleep on the BUS?” Melinda asked, squeezing his hand just as tightly.

“Quarters.” Ward and Fitz both answered.

“BUS.” Jemma whispered.

Melinda nodded that she heard everyone’s choices, before standing up and pulling Phil with her. She knew, even without him saying that he would want to be on the BUS. SHIELD quarters always made him feel funny and it would be worse now. Jemma got up slowly and followed her, the three of them trusting the other two men to be able to arrange for quarters on their own.

Walking up the cargo ramp, they all sucked in a deep breath not seeing the blue glow of the chamber in the lab.

“It’s weird right?” Jemma asked.

Melinda and Phil both nod. It was weird not to see the blue glow, even though it had been there for less than a day.

Phil vaguely gestured to the stair case. “I’m going to go to bed.”

Melinda nodded, squeezing his hand again. “She’ll be okay, Phil. Banner won’t let anything happen to her.”

Jemma nodded her agreement. “If anyone can fix her, it’s the people in there with her.”

Phil broke away, giving Melinda’s hand one last tight squeeze before climbing the stairs. Jemma broke away next, following him up the stairs to her own room, and finally Melinda climbed the stairs. But she knew better than to try to go to sleep. She would be plagued by nightmares of Skye getting shot over and over if she did, so instead she heads to the kitchen.

When Jemma comes stumbling in a few hours later, tears drying on her face, Melinda had baked their body weight in cookies, and was starting to finally feel the traces of exhaustion seeping into her body.

“You bake when you’re nervous?” Jemma asked, pulling herself up onto a stool and grabbing a double chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

“Yes. It’s all so measured. I can’t mess it up unless I’m not following the recipe. It brings me peace.” Melinda answered, pulling herself onto the stool next to Jemma and taking a cookie.

They sat in silence for a while, slowly eating cookies, and Melinda watches Jemma open her mouth a few times to say something, only to close it or put cookie in it instead.

After what had to have been the twentieth time Jemma did it, Melinda slapped the counter. “Out with it, Jemma. I am tired of watching you look like a fish.”

“Do you love her?” Jemma asked, before quickly adding on, “Because I think I do, and I don’t want to step on toes or something.”

Melinda sat back, letting the question really digest. Did she love Skye? And the more she repeated it in her head, the more she realized the answer was without a doubt yes. But then a new question rose with it; did she love Jemma? That one took some rolling around in her head, but ultimately she realized she did, very much so.

“I do. And you.”

“You care about us, but do you _love_ her?” Jemma asked, stressing the word.

“I understand what the word means, Jemma. And yes, I love her. And I love you.” Melinda answered, trying not to roll her eyes.

Jemma blinked a few times before putting her focus back on her cookie. “I could never compete with you. The way she looks at you…”

“Jemma, why does it have to be a competition? Can’t we just agree that if she lives through this she deserves the very best of both of us?”

“You said ‘if’.” Jemma whispers.

“When. When she lives through this.” Melinda quickly tried to amend.

Jemma nodded. “You’re right though, she does deserve the best of us. Both of us.”

Melinda pulled the phone out of her jeans pockets, finding a text from Ward from right after they got back to the BUS. _I can’t do this anymore. I have feelings for you and if you don’t for me that’s fine, but I can’t do this._

Melinda snorted at the phone, figures he couldn’t even stick to the damn ground rules she established.

“What’s so funny?” Jemma asked.

“Men.” Melinda responded hoping down from the stool, holding her hand out. “I don’t think she would mind if we slept in her bed, and I think that’s the only way we are sleeping.”

“Yea?” Jemma asked, putting her hand in Melinda’s.

* * *

 

Phil was knocking on Melinda’s door the next morning, irritation growing every minute she didn’t answer when Skye’s door opened and his heart almost stopped.

Melinda slipped out, one of the obscenely large t-shirts that Skye was so fond of sleeping in, on and just barely covering her boy shorts.

“Shh, Jemma is still sleeping.” She whispered, closing the door as quietly behind her as she could. “She was up most of the night crying.”

“Banner just called. She’s in a coma, they think she will live, but they have no idea when she will wake up.”

Melinda watched him slowly break apart at the edges giving her the information, before he dropped to his knees, and she was there wrapping her arms around him while he cried, a second later.

“Shhh, Phil, she’ll be okay.” Melinda whispered, rubbing circles on his back. ‘She has to be, I just realized I love her.’ Melinda thought bitterly. Melinda carefully helped him stand, walking him to the kitchen, and the stupid amount of cookies she had baked the night before. Sitting him on a stool was a little harder than she would admit, but once he was there, she fixed a plate of cookies and a mug of coffee for him, and watched him eat and drink his way back to stability.

“What were you doing in Skye’s room?” Phil asked when the last of the cookies and coffee were gone.

“I slept in there.” Melinda answers, suddenly aware of her attire, pulling at the hem of the shirt to try to cover herself a bit more.

“And Jemma?”

“Is still in there. Hopefully she’ll sleep a few more hours.”

“You love her.” Phil declares.

“Which her are you referring to?” Melinda asks.

“You love them both.” Phil amends.

“I think so.” Melinda agrees.

“You know Ward was sleeping with you to not deal with his feelings about being bisexual right? He’s hopelessly in love with Leo.” Phil says after a moment.

“He ended things last night.”

“The almost death of a team mate really makes you re-evaluate.”

Melinda nodded understanding, glancing at the closed door between herself and Jemma.

“You should call Clint.” She says after a moment. “You have been putting it off for months.”

“And say what?” Phil asks, running his finger around the plate.

“The truth. That you love him. The fraternization policy is bull shit. That you should have married him years ago.”

“Is that what you are going to tell Skye if she wakes up?”

“I’ll handle my shit when it happens.”

“Melinda?” Jemma was almost hysterically calling her.

Melinda pushed away from the counter and moved into the hall, pulling Jemma into a tight hug while the girl deflated into her arms.

“I woke up, and you were gone, and I thought…” She trailed off sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Jem. I thought you were still sleeping.” Melinda responded, keeping Jemma pressed tight to her. “Dr. Banner says Skye is in a coma, honey, do you want to go sit with her?”

Jemma nodded stiffly, pulling back to wipe the tears from her face. “I thought I dreamed everything.” She admitted sadly.

Melinda smiled tightly in understanding before pressing a kiss to Jemma’s forehead. “Go get dressed and we will go sit with her.”

Jemma nodded, quickly realizing she was also only in one of Skye’s shirts and her own panties, tugging the shirt down while her face blushed bright red upon catching Phil’s eyes.

Melinda turned back to look at Phil and ask, “Do you want to come with us?”

Phil shook his head. “I believe my best friend informed me I have a call to make, and I am pretty sure it’s going to be time consuming.”

Melinda smiled before leaving to go get dressed.

* * *

 

Melinda and Jemma both stopped in the doorway of Skye’s ICU room, trying to process the sight in front of them. Bandages are wrapped tightly around Skye’s middle, the hospital gown tucked up so that the nurses can make sure she isn’t bleeding through. The amount of IVs and other machines attached to her really doesn’t help her look any better.

“She looks terrible.” Jemma sighs.

“She looks like she just got shot twice at point blank range and spent hours with people putting her back together.” Melinda responded.

“You really need to work on the comforting part of your personality.” Jemma snaps.

“Sorry.” Melinda murmured, before walking in and moving chairs around so that they could sit on either side of Skye and hold a hand. They took their seats without saying anything more, each lacing a hand into Skye’s, their warmth a stark contrast to Skye’s chilled skin.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you.” Jemma said after they sat in silence for fifteen minutes.

“I’m not warm and fuzzy.” Melinda responded, moving the chair closer to the bed and extending her other arm across Skye’s legs.

Jemma glanced at the outstretched hand for a moment before moving her chair closer as well, resting her hand in Melinda’s and giving it a tight squeeze, before laying her head on bed by Skye and her linked hands.

“I don’t want you to be, just try to ease up on saying things like that.” Jemma said after a moment, before yawning.

“I can try to do that.” Melinda agreed, watching as Jemma slowly drifted off.

Which is how they spent the following week, with the exception of showering and eating, they never left Skye’s side, sleeping in the chairs beside her at night, hands creating a triangle between them.

Melinda was dozing in her chair while Jemma worked on some chemical formula on her tablet when Skye finally woke up, choking on the tube in her throat and sending off a symphony of alerts from the machines attached to her.

Melinda was up and out of her chair almost immediately, leaning over Skye to look her in the eyes while nurses and doctors flooded into the room, pushing Jemma aside.

“Calm down. Follow my voice and relax.” Melinda commanded and Skye immediately did as she was told, focusing on the woman leaning over her. “Good girl, they are going to pull the tube out, you need to cough hard to help it out, okay?” Melinda watched Skye carefully until she saw understanding clear in Skye’s eyes. “It’s going to hurt, but you have to keep coughing.” Melinda said taking Skye’s hand before moving away so Banner could take her spot and remove the tube.

Skye clenched Melinda’s hand so hard when she started coughing that Melinda briefly wondered if she was going to have to go get the bones in her hand set after this was all said and done. The coughing had pulled at Skye’s stitches and blood was starting to seep through the bandages around her stomach, and Melinda watched as two nurses quickly changed them out and pushed a pain killer into Skye’s IV line.

“She’s going to be in and out for a while, you should both go get some sleep in an actual bed.” Banner said, squeezing Melinda’s shoulder gently after Skye drifted back to sleep.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Melinda clipped out, keeping her hand linked with Skye’s. “Go get some sleep Jemma.”

Jemma shook her head, taking her spot back on the other side. “She is going to be scared if she wakes up.”

Bruce sighed but just patted Melinda’s shoulder. “I can’t keep Fury or Hill out of here much longer, if they see you like this they are going to read you your rights about fraternization.”

“Do I look like I give a shit, Dr. Banner? Let them try.” Melinda said, looking at him with an eye brow raised.

“Agent May, I know you are worried about her, but you and Dr. Simmons need to leave for a while. Let me get Fury and Hill calmed down and I will shoot Phil a message that you can come back. Okay?”

“Fine.” Melinda grumbled, rubbing Skye’s hand with her thumb. “Come on, Jem, we’ll come back as soon as we can.” The glare that she shot Bruce should have removed his skin, and it was pointedly a command that if she wasn’t back by Skye’s side as soon as possible that she would do exactly that to him.

Phil was waiting outside for them with a tight smile. “She woke up?”

Melinda nodded, itching with the need to pull Jemma close to her and make sure that she was still perfectly intact.

“Dr. Banner chased us out so Director Fury wouldn’t pull protocol on us.” Jemma explained.

“Director Fury and myself are going to be having an extended conversation about that particular policy.” Phil clipped out, barely contained rage seeping through.

“Your call went well then?” Melinda asked, as the three of them fell into place, walking through the halls.

“After he got done yelling at me about not being dead, it went swimmingly. Until a certain red head reminded him about that stupid fucking policy.” Phil answered her, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“That’s not going to be a policy any more by the time you are done with Fury.” Melinda said, knowing that once Phil was on a war path any poor soul who thought she was the scarier one of out of the two them, was sadly mistaken.

Jemma walked mostly in silence, but Melinda saw the gears working, trying to fit together all the information she had. Melinda was about to take pity on her and elbow Phil into sharing, when Jemma stopped wide eyed and they had to stop and look at her.

“Hawkeye, sir?” She almost whispered, but her eyes were wide.

“She’s good.” Phil commented before turning around to continue their walk to the bus.

Melinda simply smiled before turning, trusting Jemma would regain her composure and catch up.

* * *

 

When they were finally permitted to return to Skye’s room, Jemma brought a small bag of books with her and Melinda brought Skye’s lap top with her, taking their seats back on her sides.

“Going to get caught up on reading?” Melinda asked as Jemma pulled out the first book.

“She kept telling me how she wanted to read _The Game of Thrones_ , I thought I would read to her.” Jemma said, blushing a bit.

“That’s really sweet, Jem.” Melinda said with a smile, before a groggy groan from Skye pulled their attention. Melinda got up and found the cup of ice chips and fishing one out for Skye, having been in the position of waking up after a tube had been ripped from your throat one to many times, not to know the first thing you want is water. “Hey, Skye. How are doing?”

Skye winced when she tried to answer, her throat raw and dry.

“Ice?” Melinda offered, pressing the small chunk of ice to Skye’s lips.

Skye took the ice happily, contentment passing over her features while she sucked on it.

Jemma got up to stand on Skye’s other side, and was reward with a small smile when Skye actually opened her eyes to look at them.

“You guy’s my baby sitters while I am down?” She asked, but her voice lacked the normally bubbly personality that made everything around her just a little brighter.

Melinda and Jemma both broke their eye contact with Skye to look at each other. What were they supposed to say in this situation? Hey Skye, while you were potentially dying we both figured out that we love you too much to let that go, and by proxy are working on loving each other. Melinda had a feeling that would go over as well as her trying to mother a child. Not birth one mind you, Melinda was pretty sure giving birth was well within her capabilities, but actually being a mother, that was the stuff of her nightmares.

Jemma finally shook her head. “We want to be here, Skye. We have a lot to talk about when you are better, but for now, Ma- Melinda, brought your laptop, and I have the complete _Game of Thrones_ collection to entertain you.”

“I thought you hadn’t read them yet.” Skye said, trying to work out the look they had shared over top of her, but still too far gone in the land of drugs to make much out of it.

“I haven’t. I was going to read them out loud.” Jemma said with a bright smile.

Skye slowly swung her gaze to Melinda. “You’re going to sit in here with her reading to me?”

“I haven’t read them yet. But if the show is anything to go by, Daenerys is a woman I can get behind.”

“There is a joke there, but I am too drugged to make it.”  Skye almost groaned.

The corners of Melinda’s mouth turned up just a bit, and Skye mentally counted it as the first time she had seen Melinda smile.

Jemma moved her chair closer and opened the first book, setting to work while Melinda got comfortable and Skye turned all of her attention to what Jemma was saying. After a while Skye noticed Melinda had slipped her hand into Skye’s, thumb slowly dragging over her knuckles in a soothing gesture.

* * *

 

By the time Skye was finally well enough to be released from the hospital they had managed to get through all of the books and Skye was teaching Melinda how to use twitter to stalk celebrities, which really just made Melinda sigh and ask why not just look at their SHIELD files. She so did not like the look Skye gave her after she said that.

Phil had had a _conversation_ with Fury in that time about the fraternization policy, and if the e-mail every agent got shortly after aforementioned conversation said anything, Phil had steam rolled Fury into just deleting the whole damn policy with the addendum that if anyone fucked anything up because they couldn’t keep it in their pants, Alaska was a great place to be a SHIELD agent. Melinda had almost snorted reading the e-mail and Jemma had smiled so brightly that Melinda was starting to wonder if it was a super power.

Melinda was also sporting a pretty, new, bruise, courtesy of one Natasha Romanov. Apparently keeping from one of your best friends that the other best friend is actually still alive earns you a punch or three, and Melinda’s shoulder was a love shade of purple with a side of pain. But sitting on the floor of Skye’s actual room on the BUS while Jemma carefully added more liquid stiches to Skye’s surgery wounds, she could almost ignore it.

“You know, Jem, I think I am pretty much healed. They are really just like scratches now.” Skye complained.

“I’m not taking any chances.” Jemma responded, taping gauze over the wounds before moving away to sit by Melinda on the floor.

“I think you two promised me a conversation when I was better. Or was that the drugs?” Skye finally said, gingerly sitting up to look at them.

Melinda’s hand found Jemma’s without too much trouble, linking them together, the undercurrent of anxiety she had been ignoring for almost the whole time Skye had been in recovery rearing its ugly head again. What if Skye didn’t want this?

But Melinda was a big girl, who had looked death in the face and told it to fuck off, she could handle this. “We did.” Melinda said before taking a deep breath and deciding the Band-Aid approach was the best. “I love you.” She blurted.

Skye raised an eye brow, obviously looking at where Melinda and Jemma’s hands were linked together.

“I am pretty madly head over heels for you as well.” Jemma added, making Skye’s eyebrows arch even higher.

“And we love each other, after weeks of sitting by your bedside, we managed to work through our shit, we are just waiting on you.” Melinda finally finished.

Skye sat in silence for a while, just long enough for Jemma and Melinda to start looking at each other with a fair bit of worry that they had completely and totally misread everything about Skye.

“Both of you come here.” Skye finally demanded breaking the silence.

Both women slowly moved over to the bed, where Skye gently pulled them in, placing Melinda next to the wall and Jemma on her other side, both of them on their side to look at her.

“Almost dying, ten out of ten, would recommend for getting the two people you are madly in love with to realize they love you too.” Skye said with a grin.

Melinda punched her shoulder. “Not funny.”

“Very funny.” Skye retorted, before Jemma grabbed her face to press an earnest kiss to her lips.

“Shut up.” Jemma muttered, pulling back just enough to speak before kissing her again.


End file.
